It is always a challenge to do fieldwork in foreign cultures.
It is even more challenging when
your informants are invisible, and communicate in a language in which you
have had no formal training.
In this case, there are many more barriers to overcome.
My informants come from a culture that is believed not to exist, have
values that are largely foreign to the modern world, and have their own
hesitations about communicating too freely. There are no rules of
interaction, no clear ethical guidelines for working with this variety of
"native people", and no previous research upon which to depend. What little
we know of this culture comes from folklore (which is often basically
ancient gossip), stories carried down by oral tradition which change over
the years, and traveler's tales. Stories of ancient deities have
been confused with stories of ancient heroes and kings, and there is no
chart detailing lineage, or individual powers for the gods of this culture.
Of course it is difficult to determine whether "gods" is an appropriate
term for some of the Fair Folk described here. They do create their own
sets of worlds according to their archetypal aspects and emanations, and
perhaps they are gods for those worlds. They clearly do not create our
world however, so we might call them demi-gods, or nature
deities, or forget the question of divinity altogether and simply call them
leaders of another culture.
As another culture, they form a cohesive group. We have one branch, which
focuses on war and conflict, and another that emphasizes the arts. They
have introduced me to their artists, bards, and mages so that I might learn
of their cultural heritage.
I have tried to have this web site reflect their intellectual
and artistic traditions. Rather than reduce their cultural claims to
imagination or pathology, I take them seriously and respect their values. I
allow them to define themselves, and I call them by their preferred names and
titles.
This site was put together based on a specific request by
Manannan, who was concerned about the inaccurate information
presented about their culture by mythologists and folklorists. It seems
that this information has trickled back to them, and they view it as
libel.
I admire their culture for its beauty and ideals. I am therefore willing to
go through the process of focused meditation, clearing the mental field of
thoughts, and allowing them to appear (in a sometimes cloudy fashion), and
to speak through images which I translate into words. I was asked to write
their story as a favor, and I am a firm believer in doing favors for
people.
I can make no claims for the absolute validity of these stories. In this
context, I too am a storyteller. But I tell stories that have no other
listener, for the Fair Folk who have been trying to speak for many years.
These days, many anthropologists and religionists try to tell the stories
of those indigenous cultures who have been silenced over history. This
site is about one such group.
